Defend Education! Support the occupation of Lewisham Bridge Primary School!

Early this morning, parents of children who attend Lewisham Bridge Primary School bravely occupied the roof of the school in protest at Lewisham Council's reprehensible decision to bus all the pupils and teachers 3 miles each day to another site. For decades, Lewisham Bridge Primary School (a grade II listed building) has been at the heart of the community... There is a facebook group called Hands Off Lewisham Bridge Primary School (you will need to be logged into facebook to see this). Join the group, or check back here, for pictures and updates. If you're one of the strange people who prefer twitter, you can keep up to date with events here.

Miss America? More like Miss Moron.

Conservative Christians ewwwwww.



(She didn't win.)

Extra helping of propaganda with your pudding?

I love cooking. I find it a little frustrating that as a woman I actively enjoy spending hours in the kitchen, but hey, it can't be helped. I like spices, I like herbs... Heck, I even like stirring things. And I love cookery shows. Or at least I used to before it became passé to produce a cookery without a section devoting to cooking for "our boys", "our brave troops", or - my personal favourite - "our heroes".

First it happened on Masterchef and now in its fourth series Great British Menu has emerged as a BBC cookery show practically devoted to pro-war propaganda. In this particular show, Britain's top chefs compete to produce a culinary masterpiece deemed fit to serve to troops returning home from Afghanistan. Has the Ministry of Defense branched out into television cuisine? It certainly appears so, because anyone wishing to watch the cooking and ignore the propaganda, will have to filter out tens of references to "the war heroes who defend our country" every episode. Bleugh.

Wouldn't it be nice for some talented chefs to cook for us anti war activists for a change? Or for that matter for some nurses, firemen, cleaners, road sweepers, ambulance drivers, carers (you get the drift...)

Gay Iraqis Being Massacred

Last Sunday, two gay Iraqi men were found dead in Sadr City, a slum in Baghdad. They had been murdered. In March, four gay Iraqi men were also murdered in the same slums. Signs tied to their bodies displayed the words perverts and puppies. According to Amnesty International, this is merely the tip of the iceberg. As many as 25 gay men have been reported killed this month in Baghdad alone. Thousands more have good reason to fear for their lives.

All of this happened in what the New York Times called "the relative freedom of a newly democratic Iraq". I beg to differ. Freedom to be openly gay and killed for it, is no freedom at all.

Palestine Trade Union Conference

Report from Trade Union conference Saturday 18th April in Liverpool:

Around 60 trade unionists gathered in Liverpool from across the North of England to listen to speakers from Palestine, Ireland and South Africa, and discuss the response of trade unionists in Britain to the ongoing struggle of the Palestinian workers and farmers against Israeli occupation and oppression.

Delegates were reminded of the all too frequent reality and ever present danger of the situation with an announcement at the beginning that only the night before a man had been shot dead by the Israeli Defence Force, at one of the weekly Friday protests against the apartheid wall in Bil’in.

Palestine

Conference started with an introduction from Manawel Abdel-Al of the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions (PGFTU). Manawel gave an account of the daily conditions of Palestinian workers and the terrain in which unions are forced to operate. Three sets of labour laws compete in East Jerusalem; the pre 1967 Jordanian; the post 1967 forced Israeli; and the Palestinian National Authority post 1994. Unemployment runs at 33% in the West Bank and 50% in Gaza, where 70-80% of the population are living under the poverty line. Those in work can earn as little as $5 a day.

Restrictions on movement mean that Health workers in hospitals in East Jerusalem are unable to visit their families behind the apartheid wall, as they would be unable to return to work, so they have to stay where they work.. Students are prevented from attending University. UNOCHA (UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs) cited over 600 obstacles from checkpoints, to trenches, walls, iron gates and sudden/flying search points. All of which severely restrict movement and close off entrances and exits to Palestinian towns and villages.

Racist laws prevent Palestinian access to employment. Those working in Israel have to swear loyalty to the state of Israel. The train authorities will not employ anyone as a railroad crossing guard, who has not served in the Israeli army.

Manawel urged all trade unionists in Britain and the rest of the world to support the boycott of all Israeli products. He described how news of the South African Dockers refusal to unload an Israeli ship which was forced to return to Haifa, had lifted the spirits of Palestinian trade unionists during the recent war on Gaza. He also spoke of the role Veolia are playing in building a tram system in East Jerusalem. This bypasses Palestinian areas and is designed to connect up Jewish settlements around Jerusalem to the city and to West Jerusalem. It does not serve the Arab community and is in fact destroying its economy.

There was some discussion about relations with Histadrut (Israeli TUC). Several conference delegates described Histadrut as an arm of the Israeli state which supported the war on Gaza and whose former head Peres, had lead the war on Lebanon, and that trade unionists should have nothing to do with it. Manawel was clear that the PGFTU only had an agreement with Histadrut to retrieve the money illegally taken from Palestinian workers, and had no hesitation in advocating disassociation from Histadrut.

Further discussion took place on the extreme difficulties of representing workers in Gaza and working with Hamas’s Islamic trade union. Manawel said it was not always possible to represent workers in East Jerusalem, but in Gaza their offices were taken over by Hamas and subsequently destroyed by the Israelis. They are now in the process of trying to set up new premises.

We also heard and saw an eyewitness account from Sameh Habeeb a photojournalist on 3 years of siege and the last war in Gaza. He combined graphic photographs of the destruction of both people and infrastructure in Gaza, with a description of the collapse of the Gazan economy. Construction is forbidden, nothing has been built for 3 years. Sewage now contaminates the water as pipes are broken and not repaired. 4,000 factories have closed as exports are banned. The power plant was bombed in 2006 leading to widespread shortages and a reliance on power from Israel and Egypt. Israel will only allow a certain number of trucks into Gaza, forcing the authorities to make an impossible choice of having oil or flour but not both. Israel controls the ports and the airport. The only other way to get goods into Gaza is through tunnels. Over 200 people, many of them university graduates, have died in the tunnels as the Israelis target them.

Sameh described the recent war as psychological warfare and genocide. Israel targeted schools, hospitals and ambulances. Snipers also killed cattle and chickens.

Ireland

Brian Campfield (Deputy General Secretary of Northern Ireland Public Sector Union) and Eamon McMahon (Trade Union Friends of Palestine – Irish Congress of Trade Unions) then lead a discussion on the progress of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign throughout Ireland. Resolutions starting in Belfast and Derry Trades Councils calling for a boycott have lead to ICTU overwhelmingly adopting a position of support for BDS in 2007. There has been opposition from Zionist influences within the unions particularly fundamental Christians, also some inertia on the part of the Executive, but generally the campaign has been “pushing at an open door” since 2005 when ICTU agreed to campaign in solidarity with the Palestinians.

Sligo and Galway Councils have now agreed to have no new contracts with Veolia.

A measure of how concerned Israel is about BDS is that following ICTU’s support for it in 2007 they were attacked by Histadrut and the Israeli ambassador to the UK immediately set up meetings with them in Belfast and Dublin.

South Africa

We were next treated to a telephone interview with Bongani Masuku (International Secretary COSATU). Bongani said there was no more dramatic an example of apartheid anywhere in the world today than in Palestine, and in COSATU they should know. He compared Israel’s role to that played by Colombia in South America and connected them both to the strategic needs of US imperialism. He said there could be no peace until Israel is compelled to obey international law, and stressed the importance of eyewitness accounts from Palestine.

Bongani said that COSATU was committed to BDS and would develop the campaign through mass marches as well as actions such as the Dockers took, and working closely with PSC in South Africa. They were also organising a Conference for International Solidarity in June 2009. Not just for Palestine but also Burma and Zimbabwe.

He said we should not be bullied or intimidated by the Zionist actions for instance when the US and Israel pulled out of the Durban 2 review conference over the Palestinian issue. Neither should we accept the double standards of some trade unions that try to treat the colonised and the coloniser as equals.

Union caucuses from Unite, Unison, and UCU met over an excellent if somewhat delayed lunch.

Workshops

Conference broke into 2 workshops after lunch. One on trade union delegations and links with Palestine, the other on BDS in Britain.

I attended the BDS session, which mainly concentrated on comparisons (unfavourable) with the situation within the Irish trade unions, where they have national confederation backing and resources. They have also produced a document with a strategic and an operational element on how policy should be translated into action. However discussion lead to proposals to improve communications and coordination between PSC and FOP branches across the North of England at least. An attempt to form a liaison committee between the trade unions and the campaign groups, which could be presented to Trades Councils, was also suggested and initiated.

Further discussion covered Veolia’s contract in Liverpool to construct waste management systems. The argument against cancelling this contract is currently that it is not the same company as Veolia transport who are constructing the tram system in East Jerusalem. All Veolia’s accounts say that it is, and therefore could be cancelled as the tram system is consolidating further settlements in breach of UN articles.

Joint action continues at Liverpool University between student groups and UCU over boycott actions aimed at arms sales and pension fund investments in BAe.

Final Plenary

The final session concentrated on where now? or what is to be done? for the movement as a whole. Hugh Lanning (Deputy General Secretary PCS and PSC) introduced. He said the task was now to link the solidarity campaigns with the trade unions. We need to create a mass campaign on the scale of the anti-apartheid movement of the 1980’s. Trade unionists need to turn their union policies into action. Many trade unions have very good national policies on Palestine and following the upcoming round of national conferences many will have even better policies, as the wind is in the right direction at the moment. However they must become more visible within the movement both in terms of promotion and action. Key to this is BDS. The 16th May demonstration should be a part of this process.

Trade unions should also be lobbying for a change in government policy via groups like Labour Friends of Palestine, which has about 70 MP’s. They should press for the suspension of the EU trade agreement with Israel in the run up to the EU elections.

Discussion from the floor once again brought up the issue of Histadrut. Hugh did not think this should be a priority for the campaign as it meant little or nothing to the majority of members. There was a need for education of members as to the realities of daily life for Palestinians.

Kevin Brown (FBU) summed up by saying we cannot become the “3 day resolutionaries” who pass excellent motions at national conferences then do nothing for the rest of the year. We have to turn union policy into action. Challenge our own union policies; affiliate to Trade Union Friends of Palestine; invite guest speakers from PGFTU for example; dedicate socials to Palestine campaigns.

In Conclusion

My overwhelming impression of the conference was its thoroughgoing internationalism. “We are all Gazans” was a sentiment that could be felt throughout the day. In that sense it was a great success. It did however reveal how much further we still have to go in Britain in terms of significant trade union action. The majority of delegates were over 40, white and male, which is a sad reflection on the general state of union organisation and participation in the UK as a whole.

This was a step forward however and the organisers should be congratulated for their commitment to the internationalist cause and to presenting an informative day of lively debate and discussion on such an important issue. I look forward to the next, bigger and more diverse conference linked to a more active trade union movement in the near future.

John Cooke

Ian Tomlinson should not be the one on trial.

Hands up who hates Janet Steet Porter? Me, me, ME!

In today's Independent, dearest Janet has an article called 'Tomlinson was no saint, but he deserved better', which looking at the content, could just have easily been titled 'Tomlinson was a worthless working class alcoholic, but at least he wasn't an anarchist'. I've reproduced it here, with a bit of commentary...

"The circumstances surrounding the death of Ian Tomlinson at the G20 protests on 1 April are only gradually becoming clearer. What has emerged, however, is that Mr Tomlinson was a troubled man with quite a few problems [so?] I am not trying to diminish his death, [yeah you are] and the sad loss felt by his family and friends, but before we put the police in the dock, it might be worth considering what Mr Tomlinson was doing that night, and what state of mind he might have been in. [If he wasn't in the "right" state of mind as judged by Janet, his death apparently becomes that little bit more understandable...]

At first, the police put out a statement which subsequently turned out to be misleading. [Misleading? Damn lies, more like!] It said that officers sent two medics to help a man who had stopped breathing, and on arrival at hospital he was pronounced dead. We now know, as more people come forward with pictures of that evening, that events were a great deal more complicated, and that Mr Tomlinson had been involved with the police on several occasions before he collapsed. [Involved? Collapsed? Is involved the new word for 'attacked' and collapsed the new cuddly euphamism for 'was murdered'?]

Mr Tomlinson was an alcoholic [so?] who lived in a bail hostel [so?] around the corner from me in the City of London. He'd tried and failed to stay away from booze [so?] but I make no judgement about that [then why the hell are you bringing it up?] How many of us are just an inch from going down that path, where alcohol takes over your life to the point where your family don't want you around? It's all too common. There are dozens of people like Ian Tomlinson in the City every day, hanging around in churchyards, sitting on park benches, selling The Big Issue. [Dozens more waiting to be murdered by police, perhaps?] They turn up at the AA meetings held in the City every night of the week, where rich and poor talk freely about their struggle to stay sober. By the way, there are plenty of salaried alcoholics holding down good jobs in the City, disguising their addiction.

Mr Tomlinson did not have that opportunity, having started out as a scaffolder and shifting from job to job, to the point where he ended up in a hostel for the homeless in Smithfield. Mr Tomlinson probably sold me a newspaper when he had a pitch outside Blackfriars station for a while and I worked in Fleet Street. [Well that must have been one pleasant experience in his tragic life... Well done, Ms Porter.]

One columnist has said that the "steady drip" of information about his background is designed to denigrate an ordinary man. [Spot on] I disagree. [You bloody would] Knowing that he was an alcoholic is critical to understanding his sense of disorientation and his attitude towards the police, which might on first viewing of the video footage, seem a bit stroppy. [Hands in pockets walking away from police... Stroppy indeed.]

Mr Tomlinson was wearing a Millwall shirt smoking a cigarette, and he'd had a few drinks. [So?] He didn't look anything like the people the police had corralled into a confined space around the Bank of England that night. They were mostly younger, middle class, and worlds apart from a working-class bloke whose face seemed older than his years after a life on the street. One perfunctory glance ought to have shown officers that he was completely harmless. Witnesses say Mr Tomlinson appeared to be drunk, he wasn't coherent and couldn't move very well. Over an hour later, footage shows a police officer wearing a balaclava aiming at his legs with a baton, and he falls to the ground. [Pushed to the ground, Janet. *Pushed*.]

It had been a long and trying day for the police. [Poor them. Hard work, this detaining innocent protesters without trial.] Mr Tomlinson wound them up when he didn't get out of the way. But he wasn't a 20-something anarchist with a placard. [20-something anarchists with placards deserve to be killed, don't they, Janet?] The fact he didn't swiftly jump to attention when ordered to do so should have been just a mild irritant, not something requiring physical manhandling. The police have been trained to deal with drunks, just as they are trained to deal with demonstrators. This man was not a threat to public order. His life story demonstrates that the only person he ever harmed was himself. I can understand how annoying he might have been, but I can't understand why anyone would want to hit him, especially not an officer who is paid to protect ordinary citizens.

Ian Tomlinson deserved some respect and understanding, and he clearly didn't get any that night." [Maybe he also deserves to not have his private battle with alcoholism spashed across the media too, Janet. After all, he's not the one who should be on trial here. He's the unarmed man who was murdered by an armed cop. And those are the only details that matter.]

G20 Again

This overview of the G20 protests was written as a report for a comrade in Germany.

The protests marking the G20 in London last week were large and varied. On Saturday, trade unions organised the Put People First March, which attracted the most protesters to London since January’s Gaza demonstrations. 30,000 turned up to march for two hours, beginning on the Embankment and ending for a rally in Hyde Park. The trade unions had large contingents, particularly UNISON (flying gigantic helium balloons in the signature UNISON purple), UNITE and the RMT, which had a vibrant contingent. Otherwise, there was an abundance of charity organisations, including the World Wildlife Fund, Oxfam and Save the Children; these groups easily outnumbered the organised left. Several churches also put in an appearance. The left itself consisted of blocks of around 200 each from the Socialist Workers Party, the Socialist Party and the Communist Party of Britain. Other small pockets of left groups, some truly barmy, were scattered throughout the long march.

The policing of the march was fairly minimal, with only the sizeable anarchist block of around 500 receiving much attention. In organising the Put People First march, the TUC had clearly intended for it to be sedate and peaceful, as something to contrast with the violence that was expected later in the week. For all that, however, it did receive plenty of positive media coverage. What it didn’t do is offer any political alternative to Capitalism. The rally at the end of the long march saw celebrities such as actor and presenter Tony Robinson (NEC of the Labour Party) speak, as well as layers of the trade union bureaucracy who form part of the left's problem. Their demands were hollow and vacuous, which isn’t surprising on a march that couldn’t call for anything more specific than 'Put People First’.

On Wednesday April 1st Stop the War (keen to distance themselves and the Socialist Workers Party from any violence) called a protest, which has not been covered by the media. The only thing I have heard was that it was relatively small. Around 10-20,000 other protesters congregated outside the Bank of England in the early afternoon. This protest against the banks had been organised by an umbrella group called G20 Meltdown (including the moronic celebrity anarchist Chris Knight and some giant puppets called the Horsefolk of the Apocalypse). I must stress that I use the word “organised” very loosely: the day was hugely lacking in leadership and direction. Those who arrived early found themselves contained within a tight police cordon. Transport to the city centre had been affected by the protest; not knowing London very well, I had to walk the last fifty minutes of my journey to the Bank of England, and found myself on the outside of the cordon. Earlier in the day, protesters had smashed the windows of the Royal Bank of Scotland. This was the only bank to be physically attacked on the day.

By 3 in the afternoon, the day looked to be over. The police released protesters from the cordon and I wandered in to look at the damage that had been done. Down the street from the banks, a large group of protesters who had been inside the police cordon raised an anarchist flag; the police then stopped the rest of us leaving. I had been outside the police cordon for most of the day so far; suddenly I found myself trapped inside it for the next six hours, during which time the area in which protesters were kept got progressively smaller. There were no toilets, no food and no drink. Even the ill and wheelchair-bound were not permitted to leave. Police began to be provocative, goading protesters into violence. Two “protesters” were exposed as police agents in front of my own eyes and chased to the police line where they produced passes and were allowed straight through. These agent provocateurs had been throwing bottles at the same police line minutes earlier; it may sound far-fetched but it’s true. By 7 O’clock, protesters were desperate to break out of the cordon. At one point after trying to break out, riot police raiding into the crowd hitting protesters and bystanders alike with their batons and causing many injuries. I was mildly hurt.

It appears that Ian Tomlinson was walking home from work when he became trapped in the police cordon. Video footage from The Guardian shows him walking away from a line of police with his hands in his pockets, when one police officer, wearing a face mask, moves forward and strikes him with a baton. He is then pushed to the ground. None of the other policemen intervene. Protesters move forward to help him and after a while, Tomlinson gets to his feet and walks off shakily. Minutes later, he was dead. Initially, the police attempted a cover-up, claiming Tomlinson had died of natural causes. They also claimed that bottles were thrown at the police, meaning they couldn’t resuscitate him. Subsequent evidence has exposed this lie: protesters called an ambulance and medics tried to aid him, before the police forced the medics away. No bottles were thrown. Footage on Channel 4 News showed protesters moving to let Tomlinson’s ambulance through, while police vans moved to obstruct it. Not all police officers involved in the murder have come forward.

7 other protesters were hospitalised outside the banks on Wednesday, and tens more injured to some degree. Moreover, while many protesters were busy there, the peaceful Climate Camp in the City was razed to the ground. Police entered the gathering of climate activists with dogs, and brutally attacked those there with shields and batons. Because of this violent attack, 2000 people were left homeless in the city that night, which partly explains exactly why the next day’s protests were so small. On Thursday, about 500 gathered outside the Excel Centre where the G20 Summit was taking place (by outside, I mean quite a long way down the road in a police pen). Most of them were protesting Western complicity in African genocides. On the same day, about 200 attended the Socialist Party’s Youth March for Jobs, which followed an extremely long path around not particularly populated parts of the city. The third protest on that day was called on short notice. Tapping into a huge feeling of anger, this protest against police violence (and calling for an independent inquiry into Ian Tomlinson’s death) attracted 2000 people to the Bank of England.

Police tactics used during the G20 are relatively new in this country. Indeed, the detention of large groups of people without trial only became legally acceptable earlier this year. Police violence here is escalating at an alarming rate. Soon the British police will be acquiring taser guns, which is another matter of grave concern.

God Bless America!

Every now and again I find it nice to remember that however mad things might get over here, I could live in America, where no doubt I would have to deal with evangelist freaks more than once or twice a year. Taken from feministing, this particular lot of bigotry is an anti-gay marriage video currently broadcast on TV up to eight times each day in California:



Also, Amplify has a story of a Virginia teen who was suspended for two weeks from her high school for taking the birth control pill. According to the school rules, that's more days than she would have received if caught in possession of heroin and the same number of days for taking a gun to school. I'm a bit late on the uptake with this story - it's quite local newsy so it slipped under my radar - but seriously, what the fuck?

Muslims beware! Tony Blair is reading the Qur'an

Has Tony Blair become a master of irony in his new life away from Parliament? Certainly his recent interview for the BBC appears to suggest so. In the interview, Blair mourns the "wholly innocent people that have died" from terrorism (Afghanistan? Iraq? No innocent people there, it seems) and argues that the invasion of Iraq in particular was the right decision to make, because not invading in the 1980s led to "a million casualties" (unlike the million that came after). But hey, not to worry, because Catholic Tony has found a new source of divine wisdom. He apparently reads the Qur'an every day.

Communist Students vs Communist Students

Communist Students (logo to the left), the student group established by the Communist Party of Great Britain at the end of 2006, has always had a slightly rocky relationship with the Communist Party of Britain's youth group, the Young Communist League (YCL). Perhaps this is because typing communiststudents.org does in fact take you to the YCL homepage, or perhaps it's because Communist Students and the CPGB, for all their faults, are actual bona fide Communists, unlike their Stalinist counterparts in the CPB.

And then, a few days ago, this rocky relationship fractured further when an exec member of the YCL removed all information from the Communist Students Wikipedia page and replaced it with information of another group called - you guessed it - Communist Students and founded by the YCL (logo to the right). This Communist Students claims to have been in existence since 2005; if so it predates the CPGB's Communist Students. Having said this, I've been fairly active in the students' movement and though I'm by no means a leftist trainspotter (this post belies that statement somewhat, doesn't it?) I can't claim to have seen the CPB's youth active under any name other than the YCL.

How very strange. So now, where one Communist Students would no doubt have been enough for the world, we find ourselves blessed by two. Who will get to keep the name?

Galloway is Not Good Value

It's not so long ago that George Galloway railed against the secrecy surrounding the expenses of MPs. "Time for openness" it says on his website (scroll down a little- it's on the home page). There's a letter addressed to the House of Commons authorities too, which reads: "I have told the House authorities that I have no objection to the disclosure of the information pertaining to me. I don’t claim for a second home; I don’t have family members on the payroll and I don’t claim for travel." All of this, however, appears to have come back to stab Mr Galloway in the back. Two years ago, he was the most costly backbencher in parliament (costliness is measured in terms of how much money each MP claims and how many parliamentary votes they attend). Today it has emerged that Galloway is still, to put it mildly, scrounging. On top of his exorbitant £60,277 salary, he is also claiming in excess of over £100,000 while spending an absolute minority of time in parliament, just 12% of divisions in fact.

For a long time now, it's been clear that Galloway isn't a massive fan of showing up to vote, particularly when something a bit controversial is on the cards (IVF for lesbians, abortion time limit, hybrid embryos etc.) But 100,000 is really taking the piss. What is the man doing? Eating fois gras and caviar, and downing Bollinger by the bucket? How many staff is he employing? And if he is merely employing plenty of staff - and staying well away from the champagne and pay-per-view adult films - why hasn't he got the bloody time to represent his constituency in parliament? Elected representatives should be on the same wage as the average skilled worker. Socialists shouldn't be pretending to be Socialists if they can't abide by this. There's a good article by Dave Vincent (PCS) in the Weekly Worker about this here. Dave reminds us that bureaucrat sponger Mark Serwotka was elected on a manifesto of promising to take a wage in line with that earned by PCS members, but ditched this ethos when confronted with the £109,000/year salary and numerous freebies.

Bomb blast leaves gaping hole in Lenin's rear

An explosion in the early hours of Wednesday morning left a bronze statue of Lenin with a gaping hole (around a meter in size) in his rear. The statue is outside Finland Station in St Petersburg and marks Lenin's return from exile in April 1917. It is one of Russia's most famous monuments. The Telegraph chooses to blame Russia's "anarchist community" for the attack on Lenin, although admits that no group has actually claimed responsibility. Whoever perpetrated the attack may well have done so as an April Fools' day joke. Since the bottomless statue is now deemed structurally unsound, Lenin will have to be removed from his plinth for the first time since the 1920s.

Press Release by G20 Witnesses

Various participants in the City of London demonstrations on April 1st have come forward as witnesses to the collapse of a man later identified by authorities as Ian Tomlinson. Four different university students witnessed the collapse of Mr. Tomlinson. "He stumbled towards us from the direction of police and protestors and collapsed," said Peter Apps. "I saw a demonstrator who was a first aider attend to the person who had collapsed. The man was late 40s, had tattoos on his hands, and was wearing a Millwall shirt."

While the first aider was helping the man, another demonstrator with a megaphone was calling the police over so that they could help.

Natalie Langford, a student at Queen Mary, said "there was a police charge. A lot of people ran in our direction. The woman giving first aid stood in the path of the crowd." The running people, seeing a guy on the ground, went around them.

Another demonstrator had already called 999 and was getting medical advice from the ambulance dispatcher. "Four police with two police medics came. They told her [the first aider] to 'move along'.", said Peter Apps. "Then they pushed her forcibly away from him. They refused to listen to her [the first aider] when she tried to explain his condition."

The first aider, who did not wish to be named, said "The police surrounded the collapsed man. I was standing with the person who'd called 999. The ambulance dispatcher wanted to talk to the police, the phone was being held out to them, but the police refused."

Another witness, Elias Stoakes, added "we didn't see them [the police] perform CPR."

Other people who had tried to stay with the collapsed man were also pushed away.

All of the witnesses deny the allegation that many missiles were thrown.

According to Peter Apps, "one bottle was thrown, but it didn't come close to the police. Nothing was thrown afterwards as other demonstrators told the person to stop. The person who threw the bottle probably didn't realize that someone was behind the ring of police." All the witnesses said that the demonstrators were concerned for the well-being of the collapsed man once they realized that there was an injured person.

Natalie Langford said "when the ambulance arrived the protestors got straight out of the way."

These witnesses are happy to give media statements.

They can be contacted through this press liasion email: g20witnesses@gmail.com

Police Violence at G20

Today's demonstration outside the bank of England was directionless and leaderless, but otherwise vibrant. It was also marred by severe police brutality, certainly the worst protesters have experienced this year, eclipsing the police violence at January's Gaza protests. Today, at the hands of the police, one man died. Seven were taken to hospital. Tens were given medical assistance. After the wave of police brutality that occurred at around 7.30pm when hemmed-in protesters - thirsty, hungry and cold - attempted to break through the police cordon and escape, many were left bleeding. A number had head wounds. One young man knelt on the ground with his head in his hands. Another sat on the floor crying.

I was knocked to the ground and trampled underneath others who were trying to flee the police batons. A well-built man dragged me to my feet; it was painful but I'm grateful to have escaped with nothing worse than bruises. Following the crush, riot police ran into the mass of protesters, hitting people with both their batons and their shields. Many protesters were shaken and dazed. Easy targets. This early on, little is known about the man who died on the demonstration. I saw an unconscious man taken away by ambulance- I can't say whether this was him, or indeed whether he was killed in the crush, from a police baton, or from something else entirely. Already, however, the police appear to be covering up their role in the violence, portraying protesters as mindless hooligans and removing the media focus from their own thuggish attacks against unarmed protesters.

Following the attack I have described above, reinforcements of riot police arrived to guard every exit. The last chance at escape had been lost, and protesters were subsequently detained for another 1.5 hours. Even then, we were only allowed out 1-by-1, with each protester being escorted away by their own police officer (and led past barking and snarling police dogs...) Most were searched and several of the so-called "trouble makers" arrested.

Pics to follow tomorrow.

The police had also set about decimating Climate Camp, while many of the Climate Campers were otherwise engaged (being beaten by cops) outside the banks.